The plastic is nice to walk into the hotel with at the end of your day. The bad is that the sun kills them. Laches are junk and you must always carry tie downs (straps) with you. This is 4 when the latch breaks it don't fall on the road.

It's good to here that the rivets come with the new set of laches.

I'm going to check out those Jesse bags. They look more narrow but deeper that the plastic crap I have now. Not sure about walking into hotel.

Ditched my Gobi's for this setup. Hardigg Storm cases, about $260 USD/pair compared to $800 for the Gobi's. You can easily fabricate your own mounting system with little additional expense or buy one from Caribou Luggage. I put about 50,000 hard miles on them without issue. They ride well and crash well. I'm sure there are better options out there, but these have done just fine for me.

While the Gobi's may be OK for some they didnt work for me. Way too wide to filter in heavy traffic or ride tight boulder strewn trails, mounting latches would break just from spirited riding on rocky trails and the most insignificant low speed drops. Its really fun to turn around and realize one of your bags is missing, then backtrack 40 miles to find it. Holes would get punched in the outer casing making the water tank feature worthless, and a crash would deform the mounting surface as to make the box unusable without ratcheting tie down straps. I'm sure there is more not to like about them but I must have blocked it from my memory. I would expect a lot better from an $800 set of bags.

__________________Riding the Americas: No Fumar Español_____________________________________________

I think from the links that you guys have sent me. The Jesse bags are much better. More narrow will help in traffic. Made is U.S.A. makes me proud. And if you can pickup a car and the latch wont break. Sounds great to me.

+1 on the Pelican based solutions even though I've since gone to the Soft Side (Wolfman) and my legs, joints and wallet thank me at each tipover.

Another bonus of the Wolfman soft bags is that, IIRC, they are no wider, or not much wider than your handle bars. Huge bonus for splitting lanes in big Latin American cities, and squeezing between the truck you are passing and the oncoming truck on Colombian mountain roads with full confidence.

Had the new style Wolfmans been available before I started my travels I probably would have went with them.

__________________Riding the Americas: No Fumar Español_____________________________________________

The plastic is nice to walk into the hotel with at the end of your day. The bad is that the sun kills them. Laches are junk and you must always carry tie downs (straps) with you. This is 4 when the latch breaks it don't fall on the road.

It's good to here that the rivets come with the new set of laches.

I'm going to check out those Jesse bags. They look more narrow but deeper that the plastic crap I have now. Not sure about walking into hotel.

They are about the same width inside (remember the Gobi's have that water jacket in them) and are much deeper, but closer to the bike, narrower than your bars. You can get heaps more into them.

I just looked at you first post, I note that you have what looks to be a CJ Aux tank. You may need to do some fiddling to as these can take a little more space than the stock exhaust. The Bottom of the Jeese racks is sort of under the exhaust. I think CJ has a solution for this - but let the guys at Jeese know as they will work with you to sort it.

They are not as good to walk into a hotel with as the Gobi's that is for sure, to get around this I pack the hotel stuff into a top box (I use the HB Journey box for this) and I was doing this prior to having the Jeese's anyway. When I do need to carry the bags I have a couple of little straps attached to box to carry them. If I get a chance I will take some photos.

I was always skeptical of the Jeese bags until I actually picked one up and felt how light they were and how much stronger than the likes of the Tourtech boxes they are (comes down to how they are folded). Al Jeese is a pretty smart guy and doesn't rest on his laurels, constantly seeking improvement.

I use a wolfman bag on the top and it is almost 5 years old. Looks like new. Works great.

Thanks, Ceasar

I think Wolfman Expedition bags are a good choice. I have always liked Wolfman products.

You might ask the Wolfman if his rack is more narrow than the KTM rack. I think it is. If it is, I would go with the full Wolfman system. Its more narrow and the bags will be better secured IMO. A narrower setup would be much better for all the filtering in heavy traffic. The KTM rack itself is a bit wide. However, You could have issues with the more narrow wolfman rack because of your aux tank, not sure though. You are riding in Latin America correct?

__________________Riding the Americas: No Fumar Español_____________________________________________

If you are considering softbags - check these out also. I have seen them in flesh and they look good. They were on Chris Scott's (Sahara Explorer) bike and designed by Walther Colebatch after he tried many others. They will work with your existing racks.

Crashmaster,
I have rode from the states to panama. I have rode in South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho. I now live in Costa Rica.

Here is the new plan. Next week my wife and I will leave from Costa Rica. Go thru Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and then hang out in Belize. Then off to Cancun and play there for a week.
Next part is to get to the U.S. and see some friends and meet new people. No real plan yet. Wait for some warm weather then head to B.C. and see my friend Ryan. Then Alaska.

I broke my Gobis (950Adv) the first time I used them. I hear they make good coolers though.

I am very happy with my Wolfman soft bags, as long as I'm riding offroad I'll never use hard bags again. I do think the wolfman racks are too wide (for the SE) so I had our welder pull them in a bit. Perfect and I lane split all over Latin America in my set up.

Crashmaster,
I have rode from the states to panama. I have rode in South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho. I now live in Costa Rica.

Here is the new plan. Next week my wife and I will leave from Costa Rica. Go thru Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and then hang out in Belize. Then off to Cancun and play there for a week.
Next part is to get to the U.S. and see some friends and meet new people. No real plan yet. Wait for some warm weather then head to B.C. and see my friend Ryan. Then Alaska.

If you are going to Guatemala - you should get in contact with the Two Moto Kiwi's they are there now - you can look at their Jeese Luggage - your Gobi's will hang on with a strap for as long it takes to get to the US (don't ask me how I know). When you are in the US you could go Phoenix and see the Jeese's in person, their factory is there or if you want to go with the Wolfmans, go and see Dillon at Zen Motosports, he stocks Wolfmans and rides a 950 himself, great guy.

Anyway that is just a suggestion (sound like a bloody Ad). Safe travels, it is always beautiful to be travelling by bike.

Oh and it is warm enough to head North - 30ºC in Salem, OR right now and I will be in BC by the weekend.

If you are going to Guatemala - you should get in contact with the Two Moto Kiwi's they are there now - you can look at their Jeese Luggage - your Gobi's will hang on with a strap for as long it takes to get to the US (don't ask me how I know). When you are in the US you could go Phoenix and see the Jeese's in person, their factory is there or if you want to go with the Wolfmans, go and see Dillon at Zen Motosports, he stocks Wolfmans and rides a 950 himself, great guy.

Anyway that is just a suggestion (sound like a bloody Ad). Safe travels, it is always beautiful to be travelling by bike.

Oh and it is warm enough to head North - 30ºC in Salem, OR right now and I will be in BC by the weekend.

Catch up and stand in our cases?

If you are doing the big offroad the softies would be great but the Jesses are easier.